Author Archive: Donna Kato
Donna Kato - fashion expert, trend-spotter and style editor - is a veteran journalist who has covered fashion, retail and the beauty industries. Currently a principal in an early-stage technology venture, she helps consumers understand and incorporate into their lives both practical and cutting-edge design.
Fashionistas Can Help Bloomingdale’s Bring Bottled Drinking Water to Hurricane Sandy Victims
Bloomingdale’s, the department store synonymous with New York City, has made a donation of 250,000 bottles of water to those affected by Hurricane Sandy and is asking shoppers from around the country to help in bringing the number to 500,000. The campaign runs through Nov. 30. “Every Bottle Counts” is the retailer’s campaign to help [...]
Titanic Mania: The 100th Anniversary Has Spawned Tributes That Are Historical, Fashionable and Questionable
On Sunday, it will be a century since the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage from Great Britain to New York. As we tend to do, there’s a slew of commemorative this and that, from books to exhibits to a 3-D version of the 1997 Leonardo diCaprio/Kate Winslet movie. Also for sale, replicas of the [...]
Mad Men and Mad Fashion Inspire Modern Collections
Don Draper and his stylish entourage of advertising executives and spiffily-dressed secretaries–actually promoted to copy writers and office managers now–are back Sunday with a new season of secrets and style. The sixties-era fashion in the series has had women yearning for the clothes worn by their mothers and grandmothers. In a bit of serendipity, current [...]
Jean-Paul Gaultier Gets A Rock Star Welcome and Fashion School Degree
Severe and inaccessible might describe his aesthetic but Jean-Paul Gaultier is neither. The man whose cone bras for Madonna has become an iconic reference to the 1990s was warm and charmingly French during a visit Wednesday to the Academy of Art University where he received an honorary degree before an adoring crowd of fashion students. [...]
Prom Dresses Take Cues from the Runways and the Red Carpet
I never went to my prom. At the time, it didn’t seem like I missed out on much but over the years I’ve felt a little pang that I didn’t participate in such an important high school rite of passage. So, when my friend Stacy asked if I might consider taking her 16-year-old daughter shopping [...]
Dancing With The Stars: Jaleel White, William Levy and Katherine Jenkins Lead the Pack
At last, DWTS started tonight! Goodbye, Ben, The Bachelor. Hello again, Derek Hough, The Best Dance Partner Ever. I love the fancy footwork and celebrity surprises, of course, but I also adore the “fashion.” They’re costumes, I know, but I think I might like to wear one of those spangled dresses anyway. The first show [...]
Color Blocking Confusion Clarified
“What is color blocking?” “How do you know if you’re putting the colors together correctly?” It was the most asked question during a spring fashion roundtable this week at Bloomingdale’s in Palo Alto. One of spring’s most dramatic and colorful trend is known as color blocking. It simply means putting together an outfit with two [...]
The Top Tint for 2012: Tangerine Tango
Tangerine Tango has been anointed the color of the year, according to the Pantone Color Institute, and that means the velvet rope opens for all shades of orange. Pantone, which provides marketing insight by surveying colors used by prominent designers and studying current and past consumer trends, mood and economic confidence. Described as “a spirited [...]
Don’t Just Update your Wardrobe, Update Your Makeup, Too
At least once a year, I get a makeup lesson. I know I’m a lucky gal in that I sometimes get tips from the best pros because of my job as a fashion editor. But even before beauty was my business, I sought advice from makeup artists at department stores and took advantage of visiting [...]
Scene’s Spring Issue: A Behind-the-Scenes Peek at our Swimwear Shoot
We got lucky with a sunny day but even in California, January is not bikini weather. And it’s the last thing most of us want to be wearing in cold weather and in sharply focused photos for a fashion layout.That’s why we have Michelle and Brittany. Models who looked picture perfect in very little, they [...]
